Originally featured in Snowboard Magazine 11.3: The Primitive Issue
Illustration by Mark Kowalchuk
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” — J. Krishnamurti
I signed up for Instagram last summer because it felt like the smart thing to do for a local business I started. At the very least I thought it would be a good experiment as my interest in social media is low, to put it kindly. People in the high-paced, finger on the pulse industry of snowboarding often clown me for this — that is if they can focus their attention on a human interaction in between “social alerts” of one form or the other. I just don’t get it and here’s why.
In one sense, social networks thrive on a need for approval. “Forty likes, ten people said I’m rad — my worthiness is through the roof man!” I wonder though, if you are incessantly weighing this experience against another, what is unique at all about you or what you do? It’s just a peg above or below the last. Originality and real joy is that incommunicable, subjective experience that doesn’t need explanation or to be broadcast to the world. Is it not enough to do something without inviting your whole scene to know about it seconds later? Are we not content beholding a sunset to ourselves anymore? Apparently not. There is actually something called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) now! This is where dudes get anxiety because they are all consumed with the idea that other people are doing better things than they are. If that isn’t delusional, I don’t know what is. Go look it up and see what the studies tell you about how narcissism directly relates to a person’s degree of social media use. I bet you can guess the results.
To understand the severity of this one only needs to understand that in the midst of massive economic trauma, two businesses are doing quite well — smart-phones and POV cameras. It’s the simplest and most successful business model out there: addiction. In this case it’s an addiction for attention under the false pretense that it will bring happiness.
It’s a tricky situation, especially at my level or for business-minded folks trying to maintain a successful company or even snowboarders trying to make their way in this fickle industry. This game is essentially based on the idea of “All eyes on me,” and if you don’t live by that creed then you will not get approval, something so desperately vital to the state of snowboarding. No approval, no love … sorry, you are going nowhere — at least in the eyes of so many peers who mainline this way of living. Essentially, this is telling us that if you are not “followed” or “liked” to a certain degree then you are not successful. That’s not right, it can’t be. Are we really so vain as to think success hinges on such a thing?
